/6-Z. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 
THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


i 

C&ucattonal 


EDITED  BY  HENRY  SUZZALLO 

PRESIDENT   OF   THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   WASHINGTON 
SEATTLE,    WASHINGTON 


THE 

TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 
IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL 

BY 

ERNEST  C.  HARTWELL,  M.A. 

SUPERINTENDENT  OF  SCHOOLS,  PETOSKEV,  MICH. 


HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN   COMPANY 

BOSTON,   NEW   YORK   AND  CHICAGO 

Cttterjji&e  press  £ambrib0e 


COPYRIGHT,  1913,  BY  ERNEST  C.  HARTWEU. 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


Education 
Library 

\£,2- 

\-4Z5 
CONTENTS 

EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION v 

I.   SOME  PRELIMINARY  CONSIDERATIONS  .  i 

II.  How  TO  BEGIN  THE  COURSE  ...  4 

III.  THE  ASSIGNMENT  OF  THE  LESSON      .  18 

IV.  THE  METHOD  OF  THE  RECITATION.        .  34 
V.  VARIOUS  MODES  OF  REVIEW       .        .  45 

VI.  THE  USE  OF  WRITTEN  REPORTS  .  .  62 
VII.  EXAMINATIONS  AS  TESTS  OF  PROGRESS  64 
OUTLINE  ..." 69 


EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

THIS  volume  is  offered  as  a  guide  to  history 
teachers  of  the  high  school  and  the  upper  gram- 
mar grades.  It  is  directly  concerned  with  the 
teaching  methods  to  be  employed  in  the  history 
period.  The  author  assumes  the  limiting  condi- 
tions that  surround  classroom  instruction  of  the 
present  day;  he  also  takes  for  granted  the  teacher's 
sympathy  with  modern  aims  in  history  instruc- 
tion. All  discussions  of  purpose  and  content  are 
therefore  subordinated  to  a  clear  presentation  of 
the  details  of  effective  teaching  technique. 

The  reader  into  whose  hands  this  volume  falls 
will  be  deeply  interested  in  the  ideals  of  teaching 
implied  in  the  concrete  suggestions  given  in  the 
following  pages,  for  after  all  the  value  of  any  sys- 
tem of  special  methods  rests,  not  merely  on  its 
apparent  and  immediate  psychological  effective- 
ness, but  also  on  the  social  purposes  which  it  is 
devised  to  serve.  It  must  be  recognized  at  the 
outset  that  history  has  a  social  purpose.  However 
much  university  teaching  may  be  interested  in 
truth  for  its  own  sake,  an  interest  necessarily  basic 
v 


EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

to  the  service  of  all  other  ends,  the  teaching  of 
the  lower  public  schools  must  take  into  account 
the  relevancy  of  historical  fact  to  current  and 
future  problems  which  concern  men  and  women 
engaged  in  the  common  social  life.  So  the  ele- 
mentary and  secondary  school  teachers  of  the 
more  progressive  sort  recognize  that  the  way  in 
which  historical  truths  are  selected  and  related  to 
one  another  determines  two  things :  (i)  Whether 
our  group  experiences  as  interpreted  in  his- 
tory will  have  any  intelligent  effect  upon  men's 
appreciations  of  current  social  difficulties,  and 
(2)  whether  history  will  make  a  more  vital  appeal 
to  youth  at  school. 

Certainly  children,  whose  interests  arise  not 
alone  from  their  innate  impulses,  but  also  from 
the  world  in  which  they  have  lived  from  the  be- 
ginning, will  be  eager  to  know  the  past  that  is  of 
dominant  concern  to  the  present.  It  is  clear  gain 
in  the  psychology  of  instruction  if  history  is  a 
socially  live  thing.  The  children  will  be  more 
eager  to  acquire  knowledge;  they  will  hold  it 
longer,  because  it  is  significant ;  and  they  will 
keep  it  fresh  after  school  days  are  over  because 
life  will  recall  and  review  pertinent  knowledge 
again  and  again.  There  can  be  no  separation  be- 
tween the  dominant  social  interests  of  community 
vi 


EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

life  and  effective  pedagogical  procedure ;  the  for- 
mer in  large  part  determines  the  latter. 

Such  educational  reforms  in  history  teaching 
as  have  already  won  acceptance  confirm  the 
existence  of  this  vital  relation  between  current 
social  interests  and  the  learning  process.  The 
barren  learning  of  names  and  dates  has  long  since 
been  supplanted  by  a  study  of  sequences  among 
events.  The  technical  details  of  wars  and  politi- 
ral  admini\sfratinnsjiavp  given  way  to  a  Study  of 
wide  economic  and  social  movements  in  which 
battles  and  laws  are  merely  overt  results  rein- 
forcing the  current  of  change.  History,  once  a 
self-inclosed  school  discipline,  has  undergone  an 
intellectual  expansion  which  takes  into  account 
all  the  aspects  of  life  which  influence  it,  making 
geographical,  economic,  and  biographical  ma- 
terials its  aids.  All  these  and  many  other  minor 
changes  attest  the  fact  that  a  vital  mode  of  in- 
struction always  tends  to  accompany  that  view 
of  history  which  regards  the  study  of  the  past 
as  a  revelation  of  real  social  life. 

The  author's  suggestions  will,  therefore,  be  of 
distinct  value  to  at  least  two  groups  of  history 
teachers.  Those  who  believe  in  the  larger  uses 
of  history  teaching,  so  much  argued  of  late,  will 
find  here  the  procedures  that  will  express  the 
vii 


EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

ideals  and  obtain  the  results  they  seek.  Those 
who  are  not  yet  ready  to  accept  modern  doctrine, 
but  who  feel  a  keen  discontent  with  the  older 
procedure,  will  find  in  these  pages  many  sug- 
gestions that  will  appeal  to  them  as  worthy  of 
experimental  use.  It  may  be  that  the  successful 
use  of  many  methods  here  suggested  may  be  the 
easy  way  for  them  to  come  into  an  acceptance 
of  the  larger  principles  of  current  educational 
reform. 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 
IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL 

I 

SOME  PRELIMINARY  CONSIDERATIONS 

Assumptions  as  to  the  teacher  of  history 

THIS  monograph  will  make  no  attempt  to  analyze 
the  personality  of  the  ideal  teacher.  It  is  as- 
sumed that  the  teacher  of  history  has  an  adequate 
preparation  to  teach  his  subject,  that  he  is  in 
good  health,  and  that  his  usefulness  is  unimpaired 
by  discontent  with  his  work  or  cynicism  about  the 
world.  It  is  presupposed  that  he  understands  the 
wisdom  of  correlating  in  his  instruction  the  geo- 
graphy, social  progress,  and  economic  develop- 
ment of  the  people  which  his  class  are  studying. 
He  is  aware  that  the  pupil  should  experience—. 
Something  more  than-  a  kaleidoscopic  view  of  JSQ-. 
lated  facts..  He  recognizes  the  folly  of  requiring 
four  years  of  high  school  English  for  the  purpose 
of  cultivating  clear,  fluent,  and  accurate  expres- 
sion, only  to  relax  the  effort  when  the  student 
comes  into  the  history  class.  He  knows  that  the 
precision,  logic,  and  habit  of  definite  thinking 


THE  .TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

exacted  by  the  pursuit  of  the  scientific  subjects 
should  not  be  laid  aside  when  the  student  at- 
tempts to  trace  the  rise  of  nations.  Let  us 
go  so  far  as  to  assume  a  teacher  who  is  both  ped- 
agogical and  practical ;  scholarly  without  being 
musty ;  imbued  with  a  love  for  his  subject  and 
yet  familiar  with  actual  human  experience. 

Actual  conditions  confronted  by  the  teacher 

There  are  from  one  hundred  and  eighty  to  two 
hundred  recitation  periods  of  forty-five  minutes 
each,  minus  the  holidays,  opening  exercises,  ath- 
letic mass  meetings,  and  other  respites,  in  which 
to  teach  a  thousand  years  of  ancient  history, 
twenty  centuries  of  English  history,  or  the  story 
of  our  own  people.  The  age  of  the  student  will 
be  from  thirteen  to  eighteen.  His  judgment  is 
immature  ;  his  knowledge  of  books,  small ;  his  in- 
terest, far  from  zealous.  He  will  have  three  other 
subjects  to  prepare  and  his  time  is  limited.  Also, 
he  is  a  citizen  of  the  Republic  and  by  his  vote 
will  shortly  influence,  for  good  or  ill,  the  des- 
tinies of  the  nation. 

The  purpose  of  this  monograph  is  to  discuss 
the  means  by  which  the  teacher  can  engender 
in  this  student  a  genuine  enthusiasm  for  the  sub- 
ject, stimulate  research  and  historical  judgment, 
2 


PRELIMINARY  CONSIDERATIONS 

correlate  history,  geography,  literature,  and  the 
arts,  cultivate  proper  ideals  of  government,  estab- 
lish a  habit  of  systematic  note-taking,  and  pos- 
sibly prepare  the  student  for  college  entrance 
examinations. 


II 

HOW  TO  BEGIN  THE  COURSE 

VERY  obviously  each  moment  of  the  child's  time 
and  preparation  should  be  wisely  directed.  Each 
recitation  should  perform  its  full  measure  of  use- 
fulness, in  testing,  drilling,  and  teaching.  There 
will  be  no  time  for  valueless  note-taking,  dupli- 
cation of  map-book  work,  ambiguous  or  foolish 
questioning,  aimless  argument,  or  junketing  ex- 
cursions. 

What  should  be  done  on  the  day  of  enrollment 

The  day  that  the  child  enrolls  in  class  should 
begin  his  assigned  work.  In  the  first  ten  min- 
utes of  the  first  meeting  of  the  class,  while  the 
teacher  is  collecting  the  enrollment  cards,  he 
should  also  gather  some  data  as  to  his  students' 
previous  work  in  history.  This  information  will 
be  of  considerable  assistance  to  the  teacher  in 
letting  him  know  what  he  may  reasonably  expect 
of  his  new  pupils.  The  class  should  not  depart 
without  a  definite  assignment  for  the  next  day. 
Let  the  preparation  for  the  first  recitation  con- 
sist in  answering  such  questions  as  :  — 

4 


HOW  TO  BEGIN  THE  COURSE 

1.  What  is  the  name  of  the  text  you  are  to  use  ? 
(Know  its  precise  title.) 

2.  What  is  the  name,  reputation,  and  position 
of  the  author  ? 

3.  Of  what  other  books  is  he  the  author  ? 

4.  Read  the  preface  of  the  book. 

5.  What  do  you  think  are  the  purposes  of  the 
subject  you  are  about  to  take  up? 

6.  Give  the  titles  and  authors  of  other  books 
on  the  same  period  of  history. 

7.  What  has  been  your  method  of  study  in 
other  courses  of  history  ? 

W/iat  should  be  done  at  the  first  meeting  of 
the  class 

On  the  second  day  when  the  class  assembles, 
let  as  many  of  the  students  as  possible  be  sent 
to  the  board  to  answer  questions  on  the  day's 
assignment.  The  pupil  will  immediately  discover 
that  the  teacher  purposes  to  hold  the  class 
strictly  responsible  for  the  preparation  of  assigned 
work.  The  teacher  will  face  a  class  prepared  to 
ask  intelligent  questions  about  the  course  they 
are  entering  upon.  The  class  will  discover  that 
work  is  to  begin  at  once.  The  inertia  of  the  vaca- 
tion will  be  immediately  overcome. 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

Necessity  for  definite  instruction  in  methods  of 
preparing  a  lesson 

Having  secured,  by  class  discussion  and  the 
work  at  the  board,  satisfactory  answers  to  the 
first  six  questions,  and  having  assigned  the  lesson 
for  the  next  day,  the  remainder  of  the  hour  and, 
if  necessary,  the  rest  of  the  week  should  be  spent 
in  outlining  for  the  student  a  method  of  study. 
That  very  few  students  of  high  school  age  possess 
habits  of  systematic  study,  needs  no  discussion. 
In  spite  of  all  that  their  grade  teachers  may  have 
done  for  them,  their  tendency  is  to  pass  over 
unfamiliar  words,  allusions,  and  expressions,  with- 
out troubling  to  use  a  dictionary.  The  average 
high  school  student  will  not  read  the  fine  print  at 
the  bottom  of  the  page,  or  use  a  map  for  the 
location  of  places  mentioned  in  the  text  without 
special  instruction  to  do  so.  He  will  set  himself 
no  unassigned  tasks  in  memory  work.  It  is  the 
first  business  of  the  good  instructor  to  teach  the 
student  how  to  study.  The  first  step  in  this  pro- 
cess is  to  impress  on  the  student's  mind  that 
systematic  preparation  in  the  history  class  is  as 
necessary  as  in  Latin,  physics,  or  geometry.  Then 
let  the  following  or  similar  instructions  be  given 
him:  — 

6 


HOW  TO  BEGIN  THE  COURSE 

1.  Provide  yourself  with  an  envelope  of  small 
cards  or  pieces  of  note  paper.  Label  each 
with  the  subject  of  the  lesson  and  the  date 
of  its  preparation.   These  envelopes  should 
be  always  at  hand  during  your  study  and 
preparation.  They  should  be  preserved  and 
filed  from  day  to  day. 

2.  Read  the  lesson  assigned  for  the  day  in  the 
textbook,  including  all  notes  and  fine  print. 

3.  Write  on  a  sheet  of  note  paper  all  the  un- 
familiar  words,   allusions,   or   expressions. 
Later,  look  these  up  in  the  dictionary  or 
other  reference. 

4.  Record  the  dates  which  you  think  worthy 
to  be  remembered. 

5.  Discover  and  make  a  note  of  all  the  appar- 
ent contradictions,  inconsistencies,  or  inac- 
curacies in  the  author's  statements. 

6.  Use  the  map  for  all  the  places  mentioned 
in  the  lesson.  Be  able  to  locate  them  when 
you  come  to  class. 

7.  In  nearly  every  text  there  is  a  list  of  books 
for  library  use,  given  at  the  beginning  or 
end  of  each  chapter.  Make  yourself  familiar 
with  this  bibliography. 

8.  Read  the  special  questions  assigned  for  the 
day  by  the  teacher. 

7 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

9.  Go  to  the  library.  If  the  book  for  which 
you  are  in  search  is  not  to  be  found,  try 
another. 

10.  Learn  to   use  an   index.  If  the  topic  for 
which  you  are  looking  does  not  appear  in 
the  index,  try  looking  for  the  same  thing 
under  another  name;  or  under  some  related 
topic. 

1 1.  Having  found  the  material  in  one  book,  use 
more  than  one  if  your  time  permits.  When 
you  feel  that  you  have  secured  the  material 
which  will  make  a  complete  answer  to  the 
question,  write  the  answer  on  one  of  your 
cards  for  keeping  notes. 

12.  Remember  that  the  teacher  will  ask  con- 
stantly what  was  done,  when  was  it  done, 
and,  most  important  of  all,  why  it  was  done. 
Make  a  list  of  the   questions   which  you 
think  most  likely  to  be  asked  on  the  lesson 
and  ascertain  whether  you  can  answer  them 
without  the  use  of  your  notes  or  text. 

13.  If  possible  practice  your  answers  aloud.  It 
will  make  you  the  more  ready  when  called 
on  in  class. 

14.  Keep  a  list  of  things  which  are  not  clear  to 
you  and  about  which  you  wish  to  ask  ques- 
tions. 

8 


HOW  TO  BEGIN  THE  COURSE 

15.  Before  completing  your  preparation,  read 
over  these  instructions  and  be  sure  that  you 
have  complied  with  them. 

It  may  be  claimed  that  no  high  school  student 
can  be  expected  to  follow  such  instructions  and 
that  to  secure  such  a  daily  preparation  is  impos- 
sible ;  in  answer  to  which  it  must  be  admitted 
that  merely  a  perfunctory  talk  on  methods  of  pre- 
paration will  accomplish  little.  If  the  instruction 
just  suggested  is  to  bear  fruit,  the  teacher  must 
take  pains  to  see  that  it  is  followed.  Carefully  to 
prepare  his  lesson  according  to  a  definite  plan 
must  become  a  habit  with  the  student.  Facility, 
accuracy,  and  thoroughness  are  impossible  other- 
wise. Haphazard  methods  are  wasteful  of  time 
and  unproductive  of  results.  The  teacher  can 
afford  to  emphasize  method  during  the  first  few 
weeks  of  the  course.  The  time  thus  spent  in 
assisting  the  pupil  to  develop  definite  habits  of 
study  will  pay  rich  dividends  for  the  remainder 
of  the  student's  life.  Daily  inquiry  as  to  the 
method  of  study  pursued,  frequent  examination 
of  the  student's  notes,  questions  on  the  import- 
ant dates  selected,  the  books  used  for  prepara- 
tion, new  words  discovered,  and  so  on,  will  keep 
the  importance  of  the  plan  before  the  class  and 

9 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

do  much  to  foster  the  habit  of  systematic  prepa- 
ration. 

Ttie  question  of  note-taking 

On  the  question  of  notebook  work,  there  will 
always  be  a  considerable  difference  of  opinion. 
It  is  much  easier  to  state  what  notebook  work 
should  not  be  than  to  outline  precisely  how  it 
should  be  conducted.  Certainly  it  should  not  be 
overdone.  It  should  not  be  an  exercise  usurping 
time  disproportionate  to  its  value.  It  should  not 
be  required  primarily  for  exhibition  purposes, 
although  such  notes  as  are  kept  should  be  kept 
neatly  and  spelled  correctly. 

Students  should  be  encouraged  to  keep  their 
envelope  of  note  paper  always  at  hand  during 
recitation  and  while  reading.  The  habit  of  jotting 
down  facts,  opinions,  statistics,  comparisons,  and 
contradictions  while  they  are  being  read  is  most 
desirable  and  worthy  of  cultivation.  The  student 
should  be  taught  the  wisdom  of  keeping  his  notes 
in  a  neat,  legible,  and  easily  available  form. 
Shorthand  methods  should  be  discouraged.  With 
a  little  tactful  direction  early  in  the  year,  the  stu- 
dent may  be  led  to  form  a  most  useful  habit.  The 
greater  the  proportion  of  intelligent  note-taking 
that  is  done  without  compulsion,  the  better.  No 
10 


HOW  TO  BEGIN  THE  COURSE 

more  notes  should  be  required  than  the  teacher 
can  honestly  look  over,  correct,  and  grade.  It  is 
better  to  require  no  notes  at  all  than  to  accept 
careless,  superficial  inaccuracies  as  honest  work. 
One  curse  of  high  school  history  teaching  is  the 
tendency  of  young  teachers  trained  in  college 
history  classes  to  assign  more  work  than  the  stu- 
dent can  honestly  do  or  the  teacher  properly  cor- 
rect. 

As  has  already  been  intimated,  history  notes 
should  not  be  kept  in  a  book.  The  required  notes 
should  be  kept  on  separate  sheets  of  paper.  The 
topics  should  be  clearly  indicated  at  the  top  of 
each  sheet.  The  authorities  used  in  arriving  at 
the  answer  should  always  be  given,  with  the  vol- 
ume, chapter,  and  page.  The  notes  on  related 
topics  should  be  put  into  an  envelope  and  pro- 
perly labeled.  After  the  recitation  the  student 
can  make  any  necessary  corrections  in  his  notes 
without  spoiling  their  appearance.  He  will  sim- 
ply substitute  a  new  sheet  for  the  old.  If  the 
teacher  discovers  in  his  periodic  examination  of 
the  notes  that  some  of  the  matter  asked  for  has 
not  been  properly  covered  or  that  errors  have  not 
been  corrected,  the  notes  needing  revision  can 
be  detained  for  use  in  a  conference  with  the  stu- 
dent, while  the  others  are  returned.  If  at  any 
ii 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

time  after  completing  his  high  school  work  the 
student  desires  to  use  the  data  contained  in  his 
notes  or  to  add  to  them  matter  which  he  may 
later  read,  they  are  in  available  form.  For  con- 
venience and  neatness,  for  present  use,  and  fu- 
ture reference  this  device  is  far  superior  to  the 
formal  notebook.  It  has  the  further  advantage  of 
accustoming  the  student  to  the  method  of  note- 
taking  which  will  be  required  of  those  who  go  to 
college. 

It  would  save  much  valuable  time,  at  present 
frequently  wasted  in  writing  useless  notes,  if  the 
teacher  constantly  squared  his  notebook  require- 
ments with  questions  such  as  these  :  — 

1.  Is  the  notebook  work  as  I  am  conducting 
it  calculated  to  develop  the  habit  of  critical 
reading  ? 

2.  Does  the  time  spent  in  writing  up  notes 
justify  itself  by  fixing  in  the  child's  mind 
new  and  really  relevant   information   not 
given  in  the  text  ? 

3.  Is  it  teaching  students  to  combine  facts, 
opinions,  and  statistics,  to  form  conclusions 
really  their  own  ? 

4.  Is  the  amount  of  work  required  reasonable 
when  it  is  remembered  that  the  child  has 

12 


HOW  TO  BEGIN  THE  COURSE 

three  other  subjects  to  prepare,  that  he  is 
from  thirteen  to  eighteen  years  of  age,  and 
more  or  less  unfamiliar  with  a  library  ? 
5.  Am  I  able  carefully  and  punctually  to  cor- 
rect all  the  notes  required  ? 

Whatever  the  method  the  teacher  thinks  best 
to  be  used  should  be  explained  early  in  the  course 
and  thereafter  the  student  should  be  held  scrupu- 
lously responsible  for  such  requirements  as  are 
made. 

Instruction  in  the  use  of  the  library  and  indexes 

Having  discussed  with  the  class  the  questions 
assigned  on  the  day  of  enrollment  and  explained 
the  method  of  study  recommended  for  their  use, 
it  will  be  well  for  the  teacher  to  devote  some 
time  to  instruction  in  the  use  of  the  library.  It  is 
possible  that  the  older  classes  will  require  very 
little  of  this,  but  there  are  few  classes  where  an 
hour,  at  least,  cannot  well  be  spent  in  a  discus- 
sion of  indexes,  titles,  and  relative  value  of  the 
works  on  various  subjects.  This  hour  need  not 
be  the  regular  recitation  period.  A  session  be- 
fore or  after  school  could  be  devoted  to  the  pur- 
pose. The  teacher's  instruction,  however,  will 
be  greatly  assisted  if  the  students  are  asked  to 

13 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

prepare  answers  before  coming  to  class  to  such 
questions  as  the  following :  — 

1.  How  much  previous  work  have  you  done 
in  the  library  ? 

2.  Of  what  use  do  you  think  the  library  should 
be  to  you  in  the  course  you  are  just  en- 
tering ? 

3.  What  is  a  source  book  ?  Of  what  use  are 
source  books  ? 

4.  What  source  books  on  this  period  of  history 
are  in  the  library  ? 

5.  What  do  you  think  will  be  the  best  references 
for  questions  on  the  artistic,  industrial,  po- 
litical, social,  economic,  and  military  phases 
of  the  history  you  are  about  to  study  ? 

6.  What  encyclopedias  and  works  of  general 
reference  are  in  your  library  ? 

The  preparation  of  answers  to  such  questions 
as  these  will  present  to  the  student  some  of  the 
difficulties  inevitable  to  his  future  library  work 
and  will  send  him  to  class  prepared  to  ask  intel- 
ligent questions.  It  will  enable  the  teacher  ac- 
curately to  gauge  how  much  his  students  already 
know  about  a  library  and  its  uses. 

The  value  and  advantage  of  library  work  should 
be  carefully  explained  to  the  class.  It  is  a  great 

14 


HOW  TO  BEGIN  THE  COURSE 

error  to  allow  pupils  to  think  of  their  library  work 
as  drudgery,  assigned  solely  to  keep  them  busy 
or  to  make  the  course  difficult.  There  are  too  few 
boys  to-day  with  a  genuine  love  of  books,  partly 
no  doubt  due  to  the  fact  that  a  reference  library 
has  become  for  them,  not  a  rich  mine  of  inter- 
esting matter,  but  a  hydra-headed  interrogation 
point.  A  great  good  has  been  done  the  student 
who  has  been  taught  the  pleasure  of  using  books. 
Nor  is  such  a  thing  impossible.  Nothing  gives 
greater  satisfaction  to  the  normal  high  school  boy 
than  to  find  an  error  in  the  text,  the  teacher's 
statements,  or  the  map.  He  takes  pleasure  in 
confuting  the  statistics  or  judgments  quoted  in 
class,  by  others  of  opposite  trend,  encountered 
in  his  reading.  He  enjoys  asking  keen  questions. 
If  the  student  is  told  that  the  library  work  is  for 
the  purpose  of  cultivating  his  powers  of  investi- 
gation and  adding  to  the  matter  in  the  text  many 
interesting  details ;  if  the  library  requirements 
are  reasonable  and  wisely  directed ;  if  he  is  given 
an  opportunity  to  use  the  information  he  has 
gathered  from  his  reading,  his  interest  in  books 
will  steadily  increase. 

The  teacher  should  explain  the  value  of  re- 
membering accurately  the  titles  and  the  authors 
of  books  used  for  reference.  The  silly  habit  of 

15 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

referring  to  an  authority  as  "  the  book  bound  in 
green  "  or  "  the  large  book  by  what 's  his  name  " 
is  easily  prevented  if  taken  in  time. 

The  teacher  should  discover  by  assignments 
made  in  class  what  degree  of  proficiency  in  the 
use  of  an  index  is  already  possessed  by  his  pu- 
pils. There  are  few  classes  where  the  use  of  an 
index  is  thoroughly  understood.  Time  should  be 
taken  to  demonstrate  the  quickest  possible  meth- 
ods of  finding  what  a  book  contains.  The  use  of 
the  catalogue  and  card  index  should  be  carefully 
explained  and  illustrated. 

Attention  should  be  called  to  the  best  sources 
on  the  various  phases  of  the  history  to  be  studied. 
There  ought  to  be  no  poor  histories  in  the 
library,  but  if  there  are  any  to  which  the  students 
have  access,  warning  should  be  given  against 
their  use. 

The  value  of  periodicals  and  current  literature 
for  work  in  history  should  be  illustrated  and  the 
use  of  Pooles  Index  and  the  Readers  Guide  ex- 
plained. 

The  class  should  be  acquainted  with  the  rules 
of  the  library  and  cautioned  against  the  misuse 
of  books.  The  necessity  of  leaving  reference  books 
where  all  the  class  can  use  them  should  be  made 
apparent. 

16 


HOW  TO  BEGIN  THE  COURSE 

Direction  in  the  use  of  the  library,  like  instruc- 
tion in  the  method  of  study,  is  a  prerequisite  to 
the  best  results  in  high  school  history  classes, 
for  no  matter  how  conscientious  the  teacher,  the 
recitation  will  be  deadly  if  the  student  has  no 
working  knowledge  of  the  library  nor  proper 
method  of  preparation.  A  class  unable  to  ask  in- 
telligent questions  about  the  work  is  not  ready 
for  the  presentation  of  additional  matter  by  the 
teacher.  It  is  no  difficult  matter  for  a  teacher  to  , 
entertain  his  class  for  an  hour  with  interesting 
incidents  of  the  period  in  which  the  lesson  occurs. 
A  history  teacher  who  cannot  talk  interestingly 
for  an  hour  on  any  of  the  great  periods  of  history 
has  surely  missed  his  calling.  But  to  keep  a  class 
quiet,  to  retain  their  attention,  to  amuse  and  en- 
tertain, is  far  from  making  history  vital.  If  the 
recitation  is  to  be  really  vital,  the  students  must 
do  most  of  the  talking,  the  criticizing,  and  the 
questioning.  There  can  be  none  of  these  worth 
while  without  proper  preparation. 


Ill 

THE  ASSIGNMENT  OF  THE  LESSON 

Careful  assignment  will  reveal  to  the  student  the 
relation  of  geography  and  history 

THE  recitation  can  never  hope  to  achieve  its 
maximum  helpfulness  unless  the  lesson  be  intelli- 
gently assigned.  The  work  required  must  be 
reasonable  in  amount,  and  not  so  exacting  as  to  dis- 
courage interest.  Daily  direction  to  look  up  un- 
familiar words,  expressions,  and  allusions  must 
be  given  until  the  habit  becomes  fixed.  Warn- 
ing against  possible  geographical  misconceptions 
should  be  given  when  necessary,  together  with 
directions  to  use  the  map  for  places,  routes,  and 
boundaries.  A  few  questions  asked  in  advance, 
with  the  purpose  of  bringing  out  the  relation  of  the 
geography  to  the  history  in  the  lesson,  will  be  of 
great  assistance.  For  example,  if  the  class  are 
to  study  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  the  full  signifi- 
cance of  that  revolutionary  event  will  be  made 
much  clearer  if  the  student  is  asked  to  prepare 
answers  before  coming  to  class  to  such  questions 
as  the  following :  — 


ASSIGNMENT  OF  THE  LESSON 

1.  What  States  are  included  in  the  purchase? 

2.  What  is  its  area  ?  How  does  it  compare  with 
the  area  of  the  original  thirteen  States  ? 

3.  What  geographical  reasons  caused  Napoleon 
to  sell  it? 

4.  What  influence  did  the  purchase  have  on 
our  retention  of  the  territory  east  of  the 
Mississippi?  Why? 

5.  How  many  people  live  to-day  in  the  terri- 
tory included  in  the  purchase  ? 

His  power  of  analysis  and  criticism  will  be 
stimulated 

A  lesson  should  be  so  assigned  that  the  stu- 
dent will  read  the  text  with  his  eye  critically 
open  to  inconsistencies,  contradictions,  and  inac- 
curacies. With  a  text  of  six  hundred  pages,  and 
with  a  hundred  and  eighty  recitations  in  which 
to  cover  them,  it  is  not  too  much  to  expect  that 
the  average  of  three  or  four  pages  daily  shall  be 
studied  so  thoroughly  that  the  student  can  ana- 
lyze and  summarize  each  day's  lesson.  The 
teacher  should  not  make  such  analysis  in  advance 
of  the  recitation,  but  he  should  so  assign  the 
lesson  that  the  student  will  be  prepared  to  give 
one  when  he  comes  to  class.  A  word  in  advance 
by  the  teacher  will  prompt  the  student  who  is 

19 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

studying  the  American  Revolution,  to  classify 
its  causes  as  direct  and  indirect,  economic  and 
political,  social  and  religious.  There  is  no  diffi- 
culty in  finding  good  authorities  who  disagree 
as  to  the  effect  on  America  of  the  English  trade 
restrictions.  Callendar's  Economic  History  of  the 
United  States  quotes  five  of  the  best  authorities 
on  this  point,  and  covers  the  case  in  a  few  pages. 
A  reference  by  the  teacher  to  this  or  some  other 
authority  will  bring  out  a  lively  discussion  on  the 
justice  of  the  American  resistance.  Let  the  class 
be  asked  to  account  for  the  colonial  opposition  to 
the  Townshend  Acts,  when  the  Stamp  Act  Con- 
gress had  declared  that  the  regulation  of  the 
Colonies'  external  trade  was  properly  within  the 
powers  of  Parliament.  Let  the  class  be  asked  to 
explain  a  statement  that  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence does  not  mention  the  real  underlying 
causes  of  the  Revolution.  A  few  suggestions 
and  advanced  questions  of  this  sort  will  stimu- 
late a  critical  analysis  of  the  statements  in  the 
text,  and  send  the  student  to  class  keen  for  an 
intelligent  discussion. 

Ordinarily,  when  a  class  is  averaging  three  or 
four  pages  of  the  text  daily,  it  is  an  error  for 
the  teacher  to  point  out  in  advance  certain  dates 
and  statistics  that  need  not  be  memorized.  Such 

20 


ASSIGNMENT  OF  THE  LESSON 

selection  should  be  left  to  the  student.  During  the 
recitation  the  teacher  will  discover  what  dates, 
statistics,  and  other  matter  the  student  has  se- 
lected as  worthy  to  be  memorized,  and  if  correc- 
tion is  necessary  it  may  then  be  made.  It  dulls 
the  edge  of  the  pupil's  enthusiasm  to  be  told  in 
advance  that  some  of  the  text  is  not  worthy  to  be 
remembered.  Furthermore  such  instruction  does 
nothing  to  develop  the  student's  sense  of  histori- 
cal proportion,  for  it  substitutes  the  judgment  of 
the  teacher  for  that  of  the  pupil. 

Advance  questions  asking  explanation  of  state- 
ments made  in  the  text,  or  by  other  authors  deal- 
ing with  the  same  period,  insure  that  the  lesson 
will  be  read  understandingly  and  that  the  author's 
statements  will  be  carefully  analyzed.  Such  de- 
clarations as  the  following  are  illustrations  of 
statements  whose  explanation  might  profitably 
be  required  in  advance :  — 

1.  "The  Constitution  was  extracted  by  neces- 
sity from  a  reluctant  people." 

2.  "  Oregon  was  a  make-weight  for  Texas." 

3.  "  The  greatest  evil  of  slavery  was  that  it 
prevented   the   South   from  accumulating 
capital." 

4.  "The  day  that  France  possesses  New  Or- 

21 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

leans  we  must  marry  ourselves  to  the  British 
fleet." 

5.  "The  cause  of  free  labor  won  a  substantial 
triumph  in  the  Missouri  Compromise." 

6.  "The  second  war  vrith  England  was  not  one 
of  necessity,  policy,  or  interest  on  the  part 
of  the  Americans ;  it  was   rather  one  of 
party  prejudice  and  passion." 

The  conditions  in  other  countries  will  add  to  his 
comprehension  of  the  facts  in  the  lesson 

In  so  far  as  the  next  lesson  requires  an  under- 
standing of  the  history  or  conditions  of  another 
country,  the  attention  of  the  class  should  be  di- 
rected in  advance  to  such  necessity.  Special  ref- 
erences or  brief  reports  may  be  advisable.  A  few 
well-selected  advance  questions  will  send  the 
class  to  recitation  prepared  to  discuss  what  other- 
wise the  teacher  must  explain.  A  few  questions 
on  the  character  of  James  II,  his  ideals  of  gov- 
ernment, the  chief  causes  of  the  revolution  of 
1688,  and  its  most  important  results  will  do  much 
to  explain  the  colonial  resistance  to  Andros.  A 
few  questions  designed  to  bring  out  the  impera- 
tive necessity  of  English  resistance  to  Napoleon 
will  make  clear  the  hostile  commercial  decrees, 
impressment,  and  interference  with  the  rights  of 

22 


ASSIGNMENT  OF  THE  LESSON 

neutral  ships.  Such  questions  reduce  the  neces~ 
sity  of  explanation  by  the  teacher  to  a  minimum. 

His  disposition  to  study  intensively  will  be 
encouraged 

If  the  teacher  expects  the  class  to  deal  more 
intensively  than  the  text  with  the  matters  dis- 
cussed in  the  lesson,  a  few  advance  questions 
will  be  of  great  assistance.  Suppose,  for  example, 
that  the  text  contents  itself  with  saying  that  for 
political  reasons  the  first  United  States  Bank 
was  not  rechartered,  and  shortly  after  informs 
the  reader  that  the  second  United  States  Bank 
was  rechartered  because  the  State  banks  had 
suspended  specie  payments.  The  student  may 
or  may  not  be  curious  about  the  failure  of  the 
first  bank  to  receive  a  new  charter,  the  operation 
of  State  banks,  or  why  they  suspended  payment 
in  1814.  If  he  has  been  properly  taught,  he  prob- 
ably will  be,  but  if  the  teacher  wishes  to  discuss 
these  considerations  in  detail  at  the  next  recita- 
tion it  will  be  infinitely  better  to  have  the  facts 
contributed  by  the  class  than  for  the  teacher  to 
do  the  reciting.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  in- 
dividual answers  to  advance  questions  assigned 
with  such  a  purpose  will  be  incomplete,  but  the 
interest  of  the  class  will  be  incalculably  greater 

23 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

if  they  themselves  furnish  the  bulk  of  the  addi- 
tional matter  required.  Collectively  the  class  will 
usually  secure  complete  answers  to  reasonable 
questions.  The  teacher  has  his  opportunity  in 
supplying  such  important  facts  as  the  students 
fail  to  find. 

Until  the  student  may  reasonably  be  expected 
to  know  the  books  of  the  library  having  to  do 
with  his  subject,  the  teacher  in  giving  out  an 
advance  lesson  should  mention  by  author  and 
title  the  books  most  helpful  in  the  preparation  of 
assigned  questions ;  otherwise  the  student  in  a 
perfectly  sincere  effort  to  do  the  work  assigned 
may  spend  an  hour  in  search  of  the  proper 
book. 

It  may  be  urged  that  this  search  is  a  valuable 
experience,  but  it  is  obviously  too  costly.  As  the 
year  advances  and  the  pupil  learns  more  and 
more  about  the  uses  of  books  and  methods  of  in- 
vestigation increasingly  less  specific  instruction 
as  to  sources  should  be  given  by  the  teacher. 
Early  in  the  year,  with  four  lessons  to  prepare 
daily,  the  pupil  cannot  afford  an  hour  simply  to 
search  for  a  book.  He  needs  that  hour  for  prep- 
aration of  other  work,  and  if  by  some  fortunate 
conjunction  of  circumstances  his  other  work  is 
not  sufficiently  exacting  to  require  it,  he  cannot 
24 


hope  to  appear  in  history  class  with  a  well-pre- 
pared lesson  if  an  hour  of  his  time  has  been 
spent  in  simply  looking  for  a  book. 

It  is  frequently  worth  while  to  spend  a  few 
minutes  of  the  recitation  in  characterizing  the 
epoch  in  which  the  events  of  the  lesson  tafrg 
place  or  in  listening  to  a  brief  character  sketch 
of  the  men  contributing  to  these  events.  Care 
should  of  course  be  taken  that  biography  does 
not  usurp  the  place  of  history,  but  it  materially 

e  recitation  if  the  kings, 


generals,  and  statesmen^  cease  to  be  merely  .his- 
torical characters  and  bernme  human  beings. 

His  acquaintance  with  the  great  men  and 
women  of  history  will  be  vitalized 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  characterizations  of 

men   Or  epochs    ch^lll^1    rmt 


instruction  as  to  how  they  should  he.  prepared. 
In  the  case  of  a  great  historical  character,  what 
is  needed  for  class  purposes  is  not  a  biography 
facts  of 


The  report  should  be  brief,  but  bristling  with 
adjectives  supported  in  each  case  by  at  least  one 
fact  of  thp  rnan'g  IjffiJThpgp  may  be  selected  from 
his  personal  app^irqnrp,  private  life,  amusements.. 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

political  'sagacity,  or  militaryprowess.  The  sketch 
may  close  with  a  few  brief  estimates  by  bio- 
graphers or  historians  of  his  proper  place  in. 
history. 

If  a  characterization  of  q.  period  °f  hi$toryjs 
tg^be  required,  the  teacher  should  explain  that 
such  a  characterization  should,  be-aa 
the  selection  of  brief  sta^emcjit&jiLfacJ; 

^  and  conditionSLoLihe 


pejriojLbeing_dfiS£ribed.  From  histories,  so-urce 
books,  fiction,  and  literature,  lejLthe  student  select 
facts  illustrating  suchj^hingsjis  the  spirit  nf  thfi 
lasts*  conditions  .aLcourt,  publicjeducalion,  amuse-. 
^  social  progress,  position  oJ^ 


feligion^tc.  A  little  time  spent  in  characterizing 
a_p_eriod  of  history  and  a  few  of  its  great  men 
will  assist  in  changing  the  recitaLof  the  -bar& 
facts  given  in  the_text-tQ-an  intelligent  under- 
standing of  conditions  and  a  vital  discussion  of 
events.  For  instance,  the  ordinary  high  school 
text,  in  dealing  with  the  French  and  Indian  war, 
speaks  briefly  of  the  lack  of  English  success 
during  the  early  part  of  the  struggle  and  then 
says  that  with  the  coming  of  Pitt  to  the  ministry 
the  whole  course  of  events  was  changed  because 
of  the  great  statesman's  wonderful  personality. 
The  teacher  who  wishes  to  make  such  a  dramatic 
26 


ASSIGNMENT  OF  THE  LESSON 

circumstance  really  vital  to  his  class  must  have 
more  information  with  which  to  work.  A  picture 
of  the  coarse,  vulgar  England  with  its  incompe- 
tent army  and  navy,  apathetic  church,  and  cor- 
rupt government,  followed  by  a  stirring  character 
sketch  of  the  great  Pitt,  will  cost  but  a  few  min- 
utes of  the  recitation  and  will  metamorphose  a 
moribund  attention  to  a  vital  interest. 

Care  should  be  taken  that  the  characterizations 
given  in  class  be  properly  prepared.  To  this  end 
it  will  be  well  to  assign  the  preparation  of  these 
sketches  at  least  a  week  in  advance,  at  the  same 
time  arranging  a  conference  with  the  student  a 
day  or  two  before  the  recitation.  In  this  confer- 
ence the  teacher  should  make  such  corrections 
in  the  pupil's  method  of  preparation  and  selec- 
tion of  matter  as  seem  necessary.  The  charac- 
terizations should  not  be  read,  but  delivered  by 
the  student  facing  the  class,  precisely  for  the 
moment  as  though  he  were  the  teacher.  Future 
tests  and  examinations  should  hold  the  class  re- 
sponsible for  the  facts  thus  presented.  If,  as  is 
too  often  the  case  in  work  of  this  sort,  the  stu- 
dent giving  the  report  is  the  sole  beneficiary  of 
the  exercise,  the  time  required  is  disproportion- 
ate to  the  benefit  derived. 


27 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

He  will  correlate  the  past  and  the  present 

If  there  are  facts  recounted  in  the  lesson  that 
may  be  clinched  in  the  student's  mind  by  show- 
ing the  relation  of  those  facts  to  present-day 
conditions  or  institutions,  a  few  advance  ques- 
tions calculated  to  bring  out  this  relationship 
may  well  be  assigned. 

It  is  generally  conceded  that  one  chief  purpose 
of  history  instruction  is  to  enable  us  to  interpret 
the  present  and  the  future  in  the  light  of  the  past, 
but  it  all  too  often  happens  that  current  history 
is  forgotten  in  the  recital  of  facts  that  are  cen- 
turies old.  Candidates  for  teachers'  certificates 
in  their  examinations  in  United  States  history 
show  far  less  knowledge  about  the  great  pro- 
blems and  events  of  the  present  day  than  they  do 
of  colonial  history.  The  student  in  English  his- 
tory in  our  high  schools  to-day  knows  all  about 
the  Domesday  Book,  but  almost  nothing  of  the 
recent  history  of  England.  Quite  possibly  the 
text  has  nothing  to  say  about  it,  and  it  is  equally 
likely  that  the  class  may  fail  to  cover  the  text 
and  miss  the  little  that  is  actually  given.  .Hp  op- 
v  pnrtupity  should  hp  mi^sgdJjnJnHipate  fhp  hear- 
ing r>f  thp  pa«tf  r>n  pr^g^nf-rfcy  rnnr1i>ijf>ng  Even 

if  the  events  of  the  lesson  exert  no  direct  influ- 
28 


ASSIGNMENT  OF  THE  LESSON 

ence  on  affairs  to-day,  their  significance  may  be 
brought  home  to  the  student  by  an  illustration 
from  current  history.  The  account  of  the  JSlackL 
Death  gives  excellent  occasion  for  a  brief  discus- 
sion of  modern  sanitation^  and  the  war  on  the 
White  Plague.  The  efforts  of  Parliament:  to  fix 
waggs  can  be  illustrated  by  some  of  the  minimum 
wage  laws  passed  by  recent  legislatures.  John 
Ball's  teachings  suggest  a  brief  discussion  of 
modern  socialism,  daily  becoming  more  active  in 
its  influence.  The  medieval  trade  guilds  and 
modern  labor  unions ;  the  monopolies  of  Eliza- 
beth's time  and  the  anti-trust  law  of  to-day ; 
George  the  Third's  two  hundred  capital  crimes 
and  modern  methods  of  penology ;  the  jealousy 
of  Athens  in  guarding  the  privilege  of  citizen- 
ship and  the  facility  with  which  immigrants  at 
present  become  American  citizens  are  only  a  few 
illustrations,  indicating  the  ease  with  which  the 
jpast  and,  the  present  may  be  correlated. 

He  will  be  required  to  memorize  a  limited 
amount  of  matter  verbatim 

In  assigning  a  lesson  it  is  sometimes  desirable 
to  require  certain  matter  to  be  learned  verbatim. 
In  American  history  the  Preamble  to  the  Con- 
stitution, the  principles  of  government  contained 
29 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

in  the  Declaration  of  Independence^  th£  essen- 
tial doctrine  in  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  JJ£S£b- 
lutionSf  certain  clauses  of  the  ConEt-ifrnHnn,  and 
extracts  from  other  historical  documents,  may 
well  be  required  to  be  memorized  accurately.  It 
is  scarcely  to  be  supposed  that  the  student  can 
improve  on  the  clarity  and  definiteness  of  the 
English  in  such  documents.  He  is  expected  to 

•A  Understand  the  pp'nriplpg  whirh  thpy  assert     He 

may  well  be  required  to  train  his  memory  to  ac- 
curacy by  learning  certain  assignments  verbatim. 
If  memory  work  received  a  little  more  attention 
in  our  high  schools  to-day,  we  should  be  less 
likely  to  hear  the  statement  of  a  political  creed 
neutralized  by  the  omission  of  an  important  word. 
We  should  be  less  likely  to  see  the  classic  words 
of  Lincoln  mangled  beyond  recognition  by  messy 
misquotation. 

The  Assignment  of  arlvanrp.  nnpsHnns  snrh    as 

have  been  suggested  possesses  several  advan- 
tages. It  makes  it  possible  for  the  teacher  to  hold 
the  class  responsible  for  definite  preparation, 
very  much  as  the  teacher  in  algebra  is  able  to  do 
with  the  problems  assigned  in  advance.  It  forces 
the  students  to  do  most  of  the  talking  It  en- 
a  an  int-pUjgrpiifr  use  of  the  library  in  a  man- 
fn  Hpvplop  fhp  student's  pQw^rt  of 

30 


ASSIGNMENT  OF  THE  LESSON 

aHnn  If  the  pupil  forgets  most  of  his  his- 
tory, but  retains  th.e  ability  tp  investigate  care- 
fully, thoroughly,  and  critically,  the  plan  has 
more  than  justified  itself.  The  plan  enables  the 
teacher  to  spend  his  time  in  explanation  of  what 
the  pupil  has  been  unable  to  do  for  himself,  and 
thus  effects  a  considerable  saving  in  time.  It 
would  be  interesting  to  secure  a  statement  of 
how  much  of  the  teacher's  time  is  ordinarily  spent 
in  doing  for  the  student  in  recitation  what  he 
should  have  done  for  himself  before  coming  to 
class.  It  substitutes  for  the  pupil's  snap  judgment, 
given  without  much  thought  and  too  frequently 
influenced  by  the  inflection  of  the  teacher's  voice, 
an  opinion  that  has  resulted  from  research  and 
deliberation  unbiased  by  the  teacher's  personal 
views. 

It  is  too  much  to  expect  high  school  pupils  to 
solve  historical  problems  extemporaneously.  If 
inferences  and  contrasts  other  than  those  given 
in  the  text  are  to  be  drawn,  if  statements  are  to 
be  defended  or  opposed,  the  high  school  student 
should  be  given  time  to  prepare  his  answer. 
Aside  from  the  injustice  of  any  other  procedure, 
it  is  a  hopeless  waste  of  time  to  spend  the  pre- 
cious minutes  of  the  recitation  in  gathering  neg- 
ative replies  and  worthless  judgments. 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

MetJwds  of  preparing  questions  assigned  in 
advance 

It  may  be  urged  that  such  an  assignment  of  a 
lesson  as  that  proposed  is  too  ambitious  and  that 
it  exacts  too  much  of  the  teacher's  time.  In  an- 
swer it  should  be  said  that  specialists  in  history 
ought  surely  to  have  read  widely  enough  and 
studied  deeply  enough  to  be  able  to  select  intel- 
ligent questions  of  the  sort  suggested.  We  have 
assumed  that  the  teacher  has  made  adequate  pre- 
paration for  his  work.  Certainly,  then,  he  should 
be  ready  to  explain  the  social,  geographical,  and 
economic  relation  of  the  events  mentioned  in  the 
lesson.  He  should  know  their  bearing  on  current, 
h-istQry..  He  should  always  have  ready  a  fund  of 
information,  agMitionaj_to  that  given  in  the  texL 
In  preparing  advance  questions  for  distribution 
to  the  class  the  teacher  is  preparing  his  own  les- 
son. He  may  be  doing  it  a  day  or  two  earlier  than 
he  would  otherwise  do,  but  surely  he  is  perform- 
ing no  labor  additional  to  what  may  reasonably 
be  expected  of  him.  As  to  the  time  required  to 
prepare  copies  of  the  questions  for  distribution 
when  the  class  convenes,  it  may  be  said  that  a 
neostyle  or  mimeograph,  with  which  all  large 
schools  and  many  small  ones  are  equipped,  makes 

32 


ASSIGNMENT  OF  THE  LESSON 

short  work  of  preparing  as  many  copies  of  the 
questions  as  desired.  If  there  is  a  commercial  de- 
partment in  connection  with  the  school,  an  avail- 
able stenographer,  or  a  willing  student  helper, 
the  teacher  may  easily  relieve  himself  of  the 
work  of  supplying  the  copies.  If  none  of  these 
expedients  are  possible,  it  is  no  Herculean  task 
to  write  each  day  on  the  board  the  few  questions 
for  the  next  lesson.  It  will  entail  no  great  loss 
of  time  if  the  class  are  asked  to  copy  them  when 
they  first  come  to  recitation.  If  it  is  possible  to 
copy  them  after  the  recitation,  so  much  the  bet- 
ter. And  beyond  the  obvious  advantages  of  a 
carefully  assigned  lesson  it  must  be  remembered 
that  in  the  assignment  of  special  topics,  in  private 
conferences  with  the  student,  in  the  correction 
of  notes,  in  giving  assistance  in  the  library,  the 
teacher  has  an  opportunity  to  cultivate  a  sympa- 
thetic relation  between  himself  and  the  class  of 
inestimable  service  in  securing  the  best  results. 


IV 

THE  METHOD  OF  THE  RECITATION 

Assumptions  as  to  the  recitation  room 

LET  us  now  assume  that  the  recitation  will  be 
held  in  a  quiet  room  free  from  the  distracting 
influence  of  poor  light,  poor  ventilation,  and  in- 
adequate seating  capacity.  The  blackboard  space 
is  ample  for  the  whole  class,  the  erasers  and  chalk 
are  at  hand,  the  maps,  charts,  and  globe  are  where 
they  can  be  used  without  stumbling  over  them. 
The  teacher  can  give  his  whole  attention  to  the 
class.  Discipline  should  take  care  of  itself.  The 
pupil  who  is  interested  will  not  be  seriously  out 
of  order. 

What  the  teacher  should  aim  to  accomplish 

The  problem,  then,  is  so  to  expend  the  forty- 
five  minutes  in  which  the  teacher  and  class  are 
together  that :  — 

i.  So  far  as  possible  the  atmosphere  and  set- 
ting of  the  period  being  studied  may  be 
reproduced. 

34 


METHOD  OF  THE  RECITATION 

2.  The  great  historical  characters  spoken  of 
in  the  lesson  may  become  for  the  student 
real  men  and  women  with  whom  he  will 
afterwards  feel  a  personal  acquaintance. 

3.  The  events  described  will  be  understood 
and  properly  interpreted  in  their  relation 
to  geography,  and  the  economic  and  social 
progress  of  the  world. 

4.  Causes  and  effects  shall  be  properly  ana- 
lyzed. 

5.  And  that  there  shall  be  left  sufficient  time 
for  the  occasional  review  necessary  to  any 
good  instruction. 

Work  at  the  blackboard 

The  first  five  minutes  may  profitably  be  spent 
at  the  board,  each  member  of  the  class  being 
asked  to  write  a  complete  answer  to  one  of  the 
assigned  questions.  Whatever  may  happen  later 
in  the  recitation  each  student  has  had  at  least 
this  much  of  an  opportunity  for  self-expression, 
and  his  work  should  be  neat,  workmanlike,  com- 
plete, and  accurate.  By  this  device  the  alert 
teacher  will  secure  in  the  first  five  minutes  of 
the  recitation  hour  a  fairly  accurate  idea  of  each 
student's  preparation,  the  weak  spots  in  his  under- 
standing of  the  lesson,  and  the  errors  to  be  cor- 

35 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

rected.  He  may  even  be  able  to  record  a  grade 
for  the  work  done. 

Special  reports 

The  class  having  taken  their  seats,  the  next 
order  of  business  should 

1-npfos  assigned   for  *hf> 


period  of  histojy  under  discussioiLmor£-inter£st- 
ing  and  vital.  As  has  been  said,  these  reports 
should  jiot  be  rgadr-but  deliveigd__bjL-th£L^upil 
fa£ing_thje-da5s._The  xdass^hould  be  eacouraged 
to  ask-questiofta  qri^the  cppnrt  jaJien  finished  and 
the  student  responsible  for  the  report  should  be 
expected  to  answer  any  reasonable  inquiry.  If 
other  students  are  able  to  contribute  to  the  topics 
reported  on,  they  should  be  encouraged  to  do  so. 
Let  the  teacher  be  sure  that  he  has  sounded  the 
depths  of  the  students'  information  and  curios- 
ity before  he  himself  discusses  the  report.  If  the 
device  of  reports  delivered  in  class  is  to  justify 
itself,  the  matter  contained  in  them  must  be  so 
arranged  and  discussed  that  the  whole  class  re- 
ceives real  benefit.  The  ingenious  teacher  will 
be  able  to  establish  a  tradition  in  his  course  for 
a  careful  preparation  and  critical  discussion  of 
these  reports.  The  rivalry  of  students  for  excel- 
lence in  this  work  is  not  difficult  to  stimulate.  A 

36 


METHOD  OF  THE  RECITATION 

premium  should  be  put  on  criticism  which  finds 
mentioned  in  the  characterization  qualities  in- 
consistent with  the  facts  recorded  in  the  text,  or 
omissions  which  the  facts  of  the  text  seem  to 
justify. 

Fundamental  principles  of  good  questioning 

It  is  noljikely  that  the  teacher  will  findjt  ad- 
visable to^  require  reports  at  every  recitation  nor 
that  the  reports  and  their  discussion  will  con- 

sume,   at    the    most,  Inng^r   than    f^    pr   fifteen. 

minutes  of  any  class  period.  There  must  always 
be  fone  for  direct  oral  questioning  on  the  facts 
of  the  lesson  ;  questioning,  that  will  test  the  stu- 
dent's memory,  ability  fo  analyse,  qnrl  pow_eiS_ 
of  expression.  Certain  principles  are  fundamental 
to  good  questioning  in  any  recitation. 

1.  The  questions  should  be 

2.  They  should  be 


befoyeeeming  to  recitation.  This  will  insure 
rapidity.  A  vast  deal  of  time  is  lost  by  the 
unfortunate  habit  possessed  by  many  teach- 
ers of  never  having  the  next  question  ready 
to  use. 

They  should  precede  thp  "amp  nf  HIP  pupil 

jsquired-to~aaswex.il.- 
37 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

4.  They  should  npt  hg  leading  questions  to 

the,  pupil  rgn 


5.  They  should  be  grammatically  stated  with 
but  one  possible  interpretation. 

6.  Except  for  purposes  of  rapid  review  they 
should  not  be  answerable  with  .yes_or_no. 

7.  They  should  be  asked  in  a  voice  loud  enough 
to  be  heard  by  all  the  class,  and  only  once. 

8.  They  should  be  asked  m,ao_re{nilar  nrijpr, 
but  nevertheless  in  such  a  way  that  .gvery 
mpmbpr  of  the  clflSg  wjll  haVe  a  r.hanre  to 

xsrite. 

Some  additional  suggestions  for  teachers  of 
history 

There  are  additional  suggestions  particularly 
applicable  to  the  teacher  of  history. 

1.  In  all  the  questioning  remember  the  pur- 
poses of  the  recitation.  ^sk  questions  know- 
ing rxnrtly  whnt  }rrm  wifjh..a^..nrLHinvv£r. 
There  is  no  time  for  aimless  or  idle  ques- 
tioning. 

2.  Inquire  frequently  as  to  the  books  used  in 
preparation  nf  thp  l^gs^n.  Let  no  allusion 
or  statement  in  the  text   go  unexplained. 
Let  none  of  the  author's  conclusions  or 

38 


opinions  go  unchallenged.  Ask  the  student 
for  inconsistencies,  inaccuracies,  or  contra- 
dictions in  the  text.  Put  a  premium  on 
their  discovery.  Insist  on  the  student's  au- 
thority for  statements  other  than  those 
given  in  the  text. 

3.  Do  not  use  the  heavy-typed  words  frequently 
found  at  the  head  of  the  paragraph  or  the 
topical  heads  furnished  by  the  text,  if  it  can 
be  avoided.  The  pupil  shouldjoot  be  al- 
lowed tQ  remember  his  history  hy_  Jtfi_lojca.-- 


4.  Be-£ujre  that  the  class  have  an  opportunity 

nn  *b 


Advance  prcpara1-l'nT>  Nothing  is  more  dis- 
couraging to  a  student  than  carefully  to 
prepare  the  work  required  and  then  fail  of 
an  opportunity  either  to  recite  upon  or  to 
discuss  it. 

5.  Difirovfirthe  tastes,  shortcomings,  and  afolj- 
ties  of  your  individual  students  and  jjjrggt 

your  future  questions  accordingly.  .  There 
will  usually  be  in  the  class  the  boy  who  is 
glib  without  being  accurate.  He  should  be 
questioned  on  definite  facts.  There  will  be 
the  student  whose  analysis  of  events  is  good, 
but  whose  powers  of  description  are  poor. 

39 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

Adapt  your  questions  to  his  special  need. 
There  will  be  the  pupil  with  the  tendency 
to  memorize  the  text  verbatim.  There  will 
be  the  student  who  knows  the  facts  of  the 
lesson,  but  who  fails  to  remember  the  se- 
quence of  events  —  the  kind  who  never  can 
tell  whether  the  Exclusion  Bill  came  before 
or  after  the  Restoration.  There  will  be  the 
usual  amount  of  specialized  tastes,  curiosity, 
timidity,  laziness,  and  rattle-brained  think- 
ing. The  questioning  should  probe  these 
peculiarities,  and  stimulate  the  pupil's  am- 
bition to  improve  his  preparation  at  its 
weakest  point.  Needless  to  say  the  ques- 
tions sjinnlrl  not  he  asked  with  the  daily 
idea  of  making  the  pupil  fail.  Like  any 
other  surgical  instrument  the  question 
probe  should  be  used  skillfully  and  with  a 
proper  motive.  It  would  be  as  great  an  error 
to  bend  your  questions  continually  away 
from  the  student's  special  tastes  and  abil- 
ities as  to  be  perpetually  guided  by  them. 
6.  The  bulk  of  the  teacher's  attention  should 
be  given  neither  to  the  few  exceptionally 
able  students  nor  to  the  few  very  poor 
pupils.  T>  ig  t-n  thg  average  nm~mal  boy  and 
girl  that  the  most  of  the  questioning  should 
40 


METHOD  OF  THE  RECITATION 

be  directed^.  The  brilliant  student  should 
be  called  on  sufficiently  to  retain  his  inter- 
est and  to  set  a  standard  of  excellence  for 
the  class.  He  should  be  given  the  most  diffi- 
cult of  the  assignments  of  outside  work  and 
if  necessary  an  additional  number  of  them. 
As  to  the  few  pupils  whom  the  teacher 
deems  exceptionally  poor,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  effect  of  questioning  should  never 
be  to  discourage  the  pupil  who  has  made  an 
honest  effort  at  preparation.  During  the 
early  part  of  the  course  the  efforts  of  the 
teacher  may  well  be  directed  to  asking  the 
backward  student  questions  to  which  he 
can  make  reasonably  satisfactory  answers. 
By  saving  the  student  from  the  daily  hu- 
miliation of  failure  before  the  class,  and  by 
tactfully  encouraging  him  to  greater  effort, 
the  teacher  may  shortly  discover  that  the 
poor  pupil  is  far  from  hopeless. 
7.  Do  not  allow  your  questions  to  consume  a 
disproportionate  amount  of  time  with  de- 
tails. Until  very  recently  in  all  our  history 
teaching,  battles  have  been  exalted  to  a 
place  immeasurably  greater  than  their  im- 
portance. We  are  coming  to  see  that  the 
fighting  is  one  of  the  least  important  things 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

in  the  war.  The  causes  and  results,  the 
financial,  political,  and  social  effects  now 
absorb  our  attention.  One  or  two  battles  in 
a  course  may  profitably  be  studied  in  detail, 
particularly  in  the  history  of  our  own  coun- 
try, but  in  the  press  of  considerations  far 
more  interesting  and  vital,  it  is  a  waste  of 
time  to  give  more  than  a  moment's  notice 
to  the  remainder.  Student  descriptions  of 
battles  are  bound  to  be  stereotyped.  The 
ordinary  textbook  describes  each  of  the 
thousand  battles  of  the  world  in  about  the 
same  fifty  words. 

8.  Let  some  of  the  questions  be  directed 
towards  cultivating  the  student's  powers  of 
oral  description.  History  is  not  altogether 
a  matter  of  analysis  or  generalization.  There 
can  scarcely  be  assigned  a  lesson  in  history 
that  does  not  contain  events  which  lend 
themselves  to  dramatic  description.  Their 
recital  should  be  made  the  occasion  of  the 
student's  best  efforts  in  this  direction.  Let 
the  pupils  be  taught  to  use  adjectives  and 
adverbs.  Break  down  the  barrier  of  listless- 
ness  or  fear  or  self-consciousness  which 
keeps  the  student  from  rendering  a  graphic 
and  thrilling  account  of  great  events. 
42 


METHOD  OF  THE  RECITATION 

9.  Let  the  questions  from  day  to  day  develop 
the  continuity  of  history.  Avoid  question- 
ing that  fails  to  unite  the  events  of  previous 
lessons  with  the  one  being  studied.  Bring 
out  the  connection  of  the  past  and  the  pres- 
sent.  Slavery  existed  in  America  for  two 
hundred  years  before  the  Civil  War  was 
fought.  Your  teaching  of  those  two  centu- 
ries of  history  should  be  so  conducted  that 
whe.n  the  Civil  War  is  finally  reached,  the 
class  can  ^^  *h?,  process  i>y.__which_  anti- 
slavery  sentiment  was  finally  crystallizejcL. 
The  hiatus  between  the  mobbing  of  Garri- 
son in  Boston  and  the  extraordinary  con- 
tribution of  Massachusetts  to  the  Northern 
army  should  be  bridged,  not  by  a  heroic 
question  or  two  when  the  war  is  finally 
reached,  but  by  a  daily  attention  to  the 
events  which  effected  the  metamorphosis. 

10.  If  the  answer  to  your  question  requires  the 
use  of  a  map,  ask  it  in  such  a  way  that  the 
student  can  talk  and  use  the  map  at  the 
Same  f  img,r-  The  geographical  provisions  of 
a  treaty,  the  mutes  nf 


Q|__commercial   comjganies.   campaigns,  JH.  .. 

frontiers-  shnnlfLalL  hf>  recited  in 

Way.     ft    wall   map  Wjfh    comply  fV.g  fpit-- 

43 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

line   of  the   terrfrpry,  with   its.   rivers,  will 
be   of   considerably   as'T'stan'-ff   in 

the  accuracy  of 


knowledge.  ffijiile  reciting,  let  him  locate 
with  chalk  or  pointer  the  citiesr  arbitrary 
boundary  lines,  and  routes  he  finds  it  neces- 
sary to  mention  in  his  recitation.  It  will 
require  special  attention  early  in  the  course 
to  teach  students  the  necessity  for  prepara- 
tion of  this  sort.  Like  everything  else,  map 
wqrk  should  be  reasonable-  in  its  rpquire- 
ments.  A  knowledge  of  geography  is  im- 
perative to  the  correct  understanding  of  his- 
tory, and  the  indifference  or  ignorance  of 
teachers  should  never  excuse  inattention  to 
this  vital  necessity.  On  the  other  hand, 
however,  it  is  equally  reprehensible  to  re- 
quire of  high  school  students  the  labored 
preparation  of  maps  in  the  drawing  of  which 
hours  of  valuable  time  are  spent  in  search- 
ing for  places  of  trivial  importance  and 
small  historical  value.  Map  work  in  a  high 
school  hifitftry  ronrRfphftiild 


than  _  gpngraphira.1     arniracy     in 


boundaries,  routes,  an f*  plarpg  really  vital 
to  thf  hjg^ry  of  fhp  pppplfi  bffing  «;tiidipH 
If  it  does  more  than  this  it  usurps  time 
disproportionate  to  its  value. 


VARIOUS  MODES  OF  REVIEW 

The  place  of  drill  in  the  history  recitation 

WE  have  long  since  learned  the  folly  of  spending 
very  many  of  the  minutes  of  a  recitation  in  drill- 
ing students  in  dates,  outlines,  and  charts.  Work 
of  this  sort  never  made  a  recitation  vital ;  never 
inspired  a  student  with  enthusiasm  for  historical 
inquiry  ;  never  really  dispelled  the  fog  which  sur- 
rounds, for  the  student,  the  cabinets  and  consti- 
tutions, battles  and  boundaries,  declarations  and 
decrees,  so  briefly  treated  in  the  text. 

Good  reviews  will  develop  a  knowledge  of  the 
sequence  of  events 

But  it  may  be  seriously  questioned  whether 
many  teachers,  in  their  zeal  to  escape  the  over- 
emphasis of  dates,  have  not  gone  to  the  extreme 
of  neglecting  them  altogether.  That  a  student 
should  remember  sufficient  dates  to  fix  in  his 
mind  the  sequence  of  important  events  is  hardly 
open  to  question.  That  he  can  never  do  so  with- 
out some  special  attention  to  dates  is  equally 

45 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

indisputable.  Without  doubt,  drill  in  important 
dates  is  necessary,  but  it  should  be  so  conducted 
as  to  take  but  little  time.  Each  day  the  teacher 
has  indicated  th_e  da{es  worthyJxt.  he  remgmhprpH 
and  has  been^careful  to  select  the  .landmarks  of 
history.  He  has  called  attention  to  the  various 

<£      -i       "«• 

collateral  circumstances  which  might  assist  to 
fix  the  dates  in  the  child's  mind.  The  student  has 
kept  his  list  of  dates  in  th^-kack  of  His 


in  some  convenient  place  of  reference. 
we£k__for  i-kr^  mmnt-^g  fh«*  teacher  give?  the 
class  a  rapM^review  on  the  dates  contained,  in 
the  list.  Occasionally  the  class  are  sent  to  the 
board  and  asked  to  write  the  dates  of  the  reigns 
of  the  English  monarchs  from  William  down 
to  the  point  which  the  class  has  reached,  or  the 
Presidents  in  their  order,  or  some  other  similar 
exercise  calculated  to  give  a  backbone  to  the 
history  being  studied.  The  class  will  know  that 
such  a  review  is  liable  to  be  given  at  any  time. 
They  will  endeavor  to  be  prepared.  The  result 
will  be  that  with  the  expenditure  of  a  few  min- 
utes at  intervals  in  rapid  review,  history  will 
cease  to  be  a  spineless  narrative  and  become  for 
the  student  an  orderly  procession  of  events. 
Drill  in  dates  -is-enly  one  method  to,.this  end. 
There  may  be  a  rapid  review  in  battles,  generals, 
46 


VARIOUS  MODES  OF  REVIEW 

wars.  treaties,  proclamations,  and  inventions. 
Such  exercises  encourage  the  classification  of 
facts  and  stimulate  fluency  of  expression.  IlJs  of 
the  Jiighest  im£0j^n^e^oj^th^_student:  so  to  ar- 
range jnjiis  mind  whf^  b^  ^^  l^anre-4  -in-  Feeita- 
tion  thatJie_ej.n  cajHp_hi§. command  at  a  second's 
notice  the  fact,  date,  or  illustration  he  desires. 
There  will  be  many  times  in  his  school  and  col- 
lege career  when  such  an  ability  will  be  indis- 
pensable; in  business  or  the  professions  it  is  an 
invaluable  asset,  infinitely  more  useful  than  the 
history  itself.  It  will  be  well  for  the  teacher  to 
inquire  :  "  What  am  I  doing  to  cultivate  such  an 
ability  in  my  students  ? " 

They  will  give  a  view  of  the  whole  subject 

Few  teachers  will  deny  that  too  little  time  is 
spent  in  giving  the  student  a  general  view  of  the 
whole  subject,  either  in  its  entirety  or  in  its  vari- 
ous phases.  The  text  has  been  studied  by  chap- 
ters or  by  months  or  by  movements.  The  history 
as  a  whole  has  never  been  seen.  By  the  time 
the  student  has  reached  the  "  Aldrich  Currency 
Plan  "  in  American  history  he  has  forgotten  all 
about  the  experiments  with  the  first  United 
States  Bank.  He  could  no  more  outline  the  finan- 
cial history  of  the  United  States  as  given  in  his 

47 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

text  than  he  could  outline  the  industrial  or  politi- 
cal history  of  the  American  people.  And  yet  he 
has  studied  the  facts  given  in  his  textbook ;  he 
has  supplemented  the  text  by  his  work  in  the 
library,  and  in  the  recitation  ;  he  has  done  every- 
thing that  may  reasonably  be  expected  of  him, 
except  to  assemble  his  historical  information  and 
review  it  as  a  whole. 

If  the  student  in  American  history  is  asked  to 
go  to  the  board  at  intervals  and  write  an  outline 
for  the  work  covered  on  such  topics  aslhe Jollow- 
ing,  he  will  come  much  nearer  understanding  the 
progress  of  our  people : — 

1.  History  of  the  tariff. 

2.  Political  parties  and  principles  for  which 
they  stood. 

3.  Things  that  crystallized  Northern  sentiment 
against  slavery. 

4.  Reasons  for  the  unification  of  the  South. 

5.  Diplomatic  relations  of  the  United  States. 

6.  Additions  of  territory. 

7.  Financial  legislation. 

8.  Growth  of  humanitarian  spirit. 

There  will  easily  be  sufficient  topics  so  that 
each  member  of  the  class  will  have  a  different 
48 


VARIOUS  MODES  OF  REVIEW 

one.  They  can  all  work  at  the  board,  simultane- 
ously. The  amount  of  time  used  for  exercises  of 
this  sort  need  not  be  great,  and  the  value  re- 
ceived is  incalculable. 

If  the  teacher  wishes  to  review  briefly  on  the 
military,  diplomatic,  social,  political,  or  economic 
history  of  the  people  the  class  have  been  study- 
ing, it  is  no  difficult  matter  to  arrange  a  set  of 
questions,  the  occasional  review  in  which  will 
clinch  in  the  student's  mind  what  otherwise 
would  surely  be  forgotten.  Such  questions  as  the 
following  on  the  financial  history  of  the  United 
States  are  each  answerable  with  a  few  words  and 
will  serve  as  an  illustration  of  the  method  which 
may  be  employed  in  reviewing  any  other  phase 
of  history :  — 

1.  By  what  means  was  trade  accomplished  be- 
fore the  use  of  money  ? 

2.  What  are  the  functions  of  money  ? 

3.  What  determines  the  amount   of  money 
needed  in  a  country  ? 

4.  What  has  been  used  for  money  at  various 
periods  of  our  history  ? 

5.  What  is  meant  by  doing  business  on  credit? 

6.  What  is  cheap  money  ? 

7.  What  is  Gresham's  Law  ? 

49 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

-8.  What  is  the  effect  of  large  issues  of  paper 

money  on  prices  ? 
9.  What  is  the  effect  of  large  issues  of  paper 

money  on  wages  ? 

10.  Why  does  the  wage-earner  suffer  ? 
u.  At    what    periods    in    American   history 

have  large  issues  of  paper    money  been 

emitted  ? 

12.  What  were  the  objects  of  the  first  United 
States  Bank  ? 

13.  Did  the  bank  accomplish  them  ? 

14.  Why  was  it  not  rechartered  ? 

15.  When  was  the  second  United  States  Bank 
chartered  ? 

16.  Why? 

17.  What  case  decided  the  constitutionality  of 
the  bank  ? 

1 8.  Did  the  second  United  States  Bank  ac- 
complish   the  purpose   for  which   it  was 
formed  ? 

19.  Why  was  the  second  United  States  Bank 
rechartered  ? 

20.  What  is  meant  by  "  Wildcat  Banking  "  ? 

21.  What  are  the  dates  of  our  greatest  panics? 

22.  What  were  the  chief  causes  ? 

23.  What  was  the  effect  on  prices  ? 

24.  What  on  wages  ?  - 

So 


VARIOUS  MODES  OF  REVIEW 

25.  Under  what  President  was  the  independent 
treasury  first  established  ? 

26.  Is  it  in  existence  to-day  ? 

27.  When  were  greenbacks  issued  ? 

28.  To  what  amount  ? 

29.  Who  was  responsible  for  the  issue  ? 

30.  Were  they  legal  tender  for  private  debts 
contracted  before  their  issue  ? 

31.  When  was  the  Resumption  Act  passed? 

32.  Are  the  greenbacks  in  circulation  to-day  ? 

33.  What  is  free  silver  ? 

34.  What  was  the  "  Crime  of  '73  "  ? 

35.  What  was  the  "  Bland-Allison  Act "? 

36.  What  was  the  Currency  Act  of  1900  ? 

37.  What  is  Bimetallism  ? 

38.  What  is  meant  by  "  Mint  Ratio  "  ? 

39.  What  is  meant  by  "  Market  Ratio  "  ? 

40.  What  is  meant  by  "  Free  Coinage  "  ? 

41.  What  is  meant  by  "Gratuitous  Coinage"  ? 

42.  What  is  meant  by  "  Standard  Money"  ? 

43.  With  the  market  ratio  at  30  to  I  and  the 
mint  ratio  at  16  to  I,  which  money  would 
tend  to  disappear  from  circulation  if  both 
metals  are  freely  coined  and  made  full  legal 
tender  ? 

44.  Why  is  silver  not  the  standard  to-day  ? 

45.  What  is  the  "  Aldrich  Plan  "  ? 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

46.  What  is  a  United  States  bond  ? 

47.  Is  it  a  secure  investment  ? 

48.  What  is  its  average  rate  of  interest  ? 

49.  By  whom  is  a  national  bank  chartered  ? 

50.  May  it  issue  paper  money  ? 

51.  When  was  the  first  National  Banking  Act 
passed  ? 

52.  Why? 

53.  Why  should  banking  business  be  profitable 
under  the  act  ? 

54.  What  advantage  did  the  Government  ex- 
pect to  receive  in  passing  the  act  ? 

55.  Are  deposits  guaranteed  ? 

56.  May  States  emit  bills  of  credit  ? 

57.  Is  it  constitutional  for  banks  chartered  by 
the  State  to  emit  bills  of  credit  ? 

58.  Do  they  do  so  to-day? 

59.  Why? 

Obviously  as  the  year  advances,  the  list  of 
questions  for  review  grows  longer.  An  increasing 
amount  of  time  should  therefore  be  devoted  to 
work  of  this  sort. 

They  will  insure  a  better  acquaintance  with  great 
men  and  women 

The  most  superficial  observation  will  suffice 
to  convince  anyone  that  high  school  graduates 

52 


VARIOUS  MODES  OF  REVIEW 

know  very  little  about  the  great  men  and  women 
of  history.  The  character  sketches  suggested 
earlier  in  the  chapter,  supplemented  with  occa- 
sional reviews,  will  do  much  to  improve  this  con- 
dition. These  drills  may  be  conducted  by  asking 
for  brief  statements  on  the  greatest  service  or  the 
most  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  great 
men  and  women  met  with  in  the  course.  The 
same  thing  is  accomplished  by  reversing  the  pro- 
cess and  asking  such  questions  as,  —  "  Who  was 
the  American  Fabius"  ?  or  "  The  Great  Compro- 
miser"? or  the  "Sage  of  Menlo  Park"?  etc. 
Questions  on  the  authorship  of  great  documents, 
the  founders  of  institutions,  the  organizers  of 
movements,  reformers,  philosophers,  artists, 
statesmen,  generals,  accomplish  the  same  pur- 
pose. 

They  will  be  economical  of  time 

There  are  a  vast  number  of  review  questions 
answerable  with^j  or  no.  The  student's  know- 
ledge of  the  subject  may  be  quickly  discovered 
and  a  rapid  review  conducted  by  a  series  of  such 
questions.  The  following  list  on  American  his- 
tory will  illustrate  the  method  :  — 

I.  Was  Cromwell's  colonial  policy  helpful  to 
the  American  colonies  ? 

53 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

2.  Did  the  Revolution  of  1688  have  any  effect 
on  the  colonies  ? 

3.  Were  the  Huguenots  excluded  from  Canada? 

4.  Were  the  Writs  of  Assistance  used  in  Eng- 
land ? 

5.  Did  America  ever  have  a  theocracy  ? 

6.  Did  the  rule  of  1756  affect  the  people  of 
the  colonies  ? 

7.  Was  the  Sugar  Act  legal  ? 

8.  Was  there  any  effort  to  amend  the  Articles 
of  Confederation  ? 

9.  Does  funding  a  debt  lessen  it  ? 

10.  Did  Hamilton's  measures  tend  to  centralize 
power  ? 

11.  Did  the  members   of   the  Constitutional 
Convention  exceed  their  instructions  ? 

12.  Is  a  cabinet  provided  for  in  the  Constitu- 
tion ? 

13.  Does  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
prevent  a  State  from  establishing  a  religion  ? 

14.  Is  it  possible  for  a  State  to  repudiate  its 
debts  ? 

15.  Does  the  constitutional  provision  for  uni- 
form duties  protect  the  Territories  ? 

1 6.  Was  impressment  practiced  in  England  ? 

17.  Did    the    Whigs   favor  internal   improve- 
ments ? 

54 


VARIOUS  MODES  OF  REVIEW 

18.  Did  the  North  favor  the  Force  Bill  of  1833  ? 

19.  Did    Massachusetts    favor    the  Tariff  of 
1816? 

20.  Did  the  Republican  party  stand  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  1860? 

21.  Did  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  free  all 
the  slaves  in  the  United  States  ? 

22.  Did  the  working-men  of  England  favor  the 
South  during  the  Civil  War  ? 

23.  Was  it  necessary  for  the  South  to  resort  to 
the  draft  ? 

24.  Could  a  man  in  1860  consistently  accept 
both  the  Dred  Scott  decision  and  the  doc- 
trine of  popular  sovereignty  ? 

25.  Did  Lincoln's  assassination  have  any  effect 
on  the  reconstruction  policy  ? 

26.  Does  the  Federal  Constitution  compel  ne- 
gro suffrage  ? 

27.  Was  the  Anaconda  System  successful  ? 

28.  Was  a  President  of  the  United  States  ever 
impeached  ? 

29.  Were  the  claims  for  indirect  damages  in 
the  Alabama  claims  allowed  ? 

30.  Did   Calhoun   favor    the   Compromise  of 
1850? 

31.  Did  Thaddeus  Stevens  favor  the  Fifteenth 
Amendment  to  the  Constitution  ? 

55 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

32.  Did  Lincoln  favor  the  social  equality  of  the 
white  and  black  races  ? 

33.  Did  Grant  favor  the  Tenure  of  Office  Act  ? 

34.  Did  Lee  make  more  than  one  attempt  to 
invade  the  North  ? 

35.  Was  the  "Ohio  Idea"  ever  strong  enough 
to  affect  legislation  ? 

36.  Did  Spain  have  any  part  in  calling  out  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  ? 

37.  Has  the  United  States  any  control  over  the 
debts  of  Cuba  ? 

38.  Has  a  joint  resolution  ever  been  used  to  ac- 
quire territory  other  than  that  included  in 
Texas  ? 

39.  Has  the  United  States  ever  resorted  to  a 
tax  on  incomes  ? 

40.  Has  the  Federal  Government  ever  attempted 
to  restrict  the  power  of  the  press  ? 

41.  Is  it  illegal  to-day  for  a  railway  to  give  a 
cheaper  rate  to  one  shipper  than  to  an- 
other ? 

42.  Has  the  Republican  party  ever  reduced  the 
protective  tariffs  of  the  war  ? 

43.  Did  the  Civil  Service  Act  passed  in  1883 
include  postmasters  ? 

44.  Did  the  Wilson-Gorman  Act  reduce  the 
tariff  to  a  revenue  basis  ? 

56 


VARIOUS  MODES  OF  REVIEW 

45.  Can  a  railway  engaged  solely  in  intra-state 
business  carry  a  case,  involving  a  reduction 
of  their  rates  by  the  State  legislature,  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  ? 

46.  Is  Utah  a  part  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  ? 

47.  If  the  mint  ratio  is  16  to  I  and  the  market 
ratio  is  17  to  I,  will  the  gold  dollar  be  the 
standard  if  there  is  full  legal  tender  and 
free  coinage  for  both  gold  and  silver  ? 

48.  Is  the  Canadian  frontier  fortified  ? 

49.  Are  the  functions  of  government  in  this 
country  increasing  ? 

50.  Is  it  possible  for  a  man  to  be  defeated  for 
the  Presidency  if  a  majority  of  the  people 
vote  for  him  ? 

The  great  disadvantage  of  this  kind  of  review 
is  that  the  students  have  for  their  answer  a 
choice  between  two  words,  one  of  which  is 
bound  to  be  correct.  Knowing  nothing  whatever 
of  the  subject,  they  will  still  stand  a  fifty  per  cent 
chance  of  answering  correctly.  The  alert  teacher 
should  be  able  to  reduce  this  haphazard  answer- 
ing to  a  minimum,  while  still  reaping  the  advan- 
tages of  rapidity  and  thoroughness  which  the 
plan  possesses.  Few  other  methods  will  cover  as 
much  ground  in  as  short  time.  On  the  Federal 

57 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

Constitution  there  are  infinite  possibilities  for 
"  yes  and  no  "  questioning,  which  afford  a  brief 
and  effective  means  of  review  in  the  principles 
of  American  government. 

They  will  secure  fluency 

Review  for  the  purpose  of  securing  fluency  is 
a  consideration  frequently  lost  sight  of  by  high 
school  history  teachers.  It  may  be  too  sanguine 
to  expect  fluency  of  the  average  student  reciting 
on  a  topic  for  the  first  time.  But  when  it  is  con- 
sidered how  very  many  important  questions  are 
never  recited  on  but  once,  the  wisdom  of  an 
occasional  review  to  secure  rapid,  fluent,  and 
complete  answers  to  topics  previously  discussed 
is  readily  seen.  Select  a  list  of  topics  that  will 
at  one  and  the  same  time  cultivate  fluency  and 
strengthen  the  memory  for  the  important  con- 
siderations of  history.  Fluency  in  itself  does  not 
possess  sufficient  value  to  justify  the  expenditure 
of  recitation  time.  Facility  of  expression  needs 
to  be  cultivated  in  discussion  of  the  conclusions 
reached  in  class  which  need  to  be  clinched  in  the 
student's  mind.  Such  questions  as  the  following 
will  serve  as  illustrations  of  the  kind  adaptable 
for  such  purpose,  at  the  middle  of  a  year  course 
in  American  history  :  — 

58 


VARIOUS  MODES  OF  REVIEW 

1.  Give  three  distinct  characteristics  of  French 
colonization  in  America ;  three  of  Spanish ; 
three  of  English. 

2.  What  things  did  the  English  colonies  possess 
in  common  ? 

3.  What  were  the  results  to  the  colonies  of  the 
French  and  Indian  War? 

4.  To  what  extent  was  the  Revolution  brought 
about  by  economic  causes  ? 

5.  What  were  the  defects  in  the  Articles  of 
Confederation  ? 

6.  Account  for  the  downfall  of  the  Federalist 
party. 

7.  In  what  ways  has  democracy  advanced  since 
1789? 

8.  What  were  the  results  of  the  struggle  over 
the  admission  of  Missouri  ? 

9.  Discuss  the  growth  of  the  sentiment  for 
internal  improvements  ? 

10.  Describe  the  social   life  of  the  Western 
pioneer  ? 

What  the  student  may  do  with  "problems"  in 
history 

Still  another  kind  of  review  of  great  value  in 
strengthening  the  student's  ability  to  generalize 

59 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

and  analyze,  consists  of  what  might  be  called 
"problems  in  history."  They  are  given  out  in 
much  the  same  way  as  original  problems  in 
geometry,  assuming  that  the  student  is  acquainted 
with  the  facts  from  which  to  deduce  the  answers 
to  the  question.  The  object  of  such  a  review  is  to 
give  the  student  practice  in  original  thinking. 
He  is  not  supposed  to  use  a  library,  but  only  the 
facts  which  are  in  his  text  or  which  have  been 
previously  brought  out  in  class  recitations. 

The  following  are  examples  of  questions  adapt- 
able for  this  purpose :  — 

1.  Why  can  the  American  people  be  regarded 
as  the  world's  greatest  colonizers  ? 

2.  Why  could  Washington  be  regarded  as  only 
an  Englishman  living  in  America  ? 

3.  Is  it  true  that  the  South  lost  the  Civil  War 
because  of  slavery  ? 

4.  In  what  particulars  did  Andrew  Jackson  ac- 
curately reflect  the  spirit  or  the  ideals  of  the 
new  West  ? 

5.  What  is  illustrated  by  the  attempt  to  found 
the  State  of  Franklin  ? 

6.  What  considerations  made  the  secession  of 
the  West  in  our  early  history  a  likely  possi- 
bility ? 

60 


VARIOUS  MODES  OF  REVIEW 

Questions  of  this  kind,  not  answered  directly 
in  class  or  in  the  text,  may  be  given  out  a  day  in 
advance  and  the  answers  collected  at  the  next 
recitation. 


VI 

THE  USE  OF  WRITTEN  REPORTS 

The  purpose  of  theme  work  should  change  as 
the  course  continues 

A  METHOD  frequently  employed  by  teachers  of  his- 
tory is  to  require  written  reports  pr  theses  on  vari- 
ous phases  of  the  history  as  the  work  progresses*  —  - 
This  plan  is  particularly  valuable  for  the  students 
in  the  first  two  years  of  high  school  history,  for 
the  reason  that  their  library  requirements  are  less 
exacting  and  their  need  of  fluency  greater  during 
that  time  than  later  in  their  course.  The  objects 
of  theme  work  in  history  courses  are  usually  to 

e.  p"pil'-S  pnwprs_nf  nhsqrvaiinn, 


.  tJOn,  ajjd  "arratinn,  anH  *n  prflyjde  means  of  drill 

in  fir*  gygm'fte  of  these  powers.  These  should 
not  be  the  sole  purposes  of  theme  work,  how- 
ever. As  the  year  advances,  an  increasing  amount 
of  the  written  work  should  be  on  guhjprt-g  rpqiiir-_ 

ing  some   g^ngraliyatinn  nr  ana1yqJs_fvM-hp  facts 

brought  out  in  the  text  or  in  the  recitation.  The 

pupil  who  has  written  a  theme  describing  the 

appearance  of  the  Pyramids  has  completed  an 

62 


THE  USE  OF  WRITTEN  REPORTS 

exercise  in  history  less  valuable  than  that  of  the 
student  who  writes  a  theme  on  the  errors  of  the 
Athenian  Democracy. 

To  Summarize,  reviews  in    histnry  should  CQn- 

sisLof  hnth^oral  and  written  work  ;  they  should 
lnsiir_e..qpick  thinking,  alert 


attention,  and  stnalL  expenditure  of  timejjjiey 
should  occur  with  increasing  frequency  as  the 
year  advanresjjjiey  should  stork-,  t-h** 


fir  in    t-hp  stnrlftTit's   THJ"^  <"hfi  nrrter   of 
Stimulatg_Aiency.  insure  a  permanent  ar.quaint- 
anre  with   tVip  pprsnnnpl   nf  histnry,  ^pH  gnvfr  tr> 

tjie_jtiideixt  _a_bejter_viewj3f  _the_subject  . 
whole  and  in  its  various  phases. 


VII 

EXAMINATIONS  AS  TESTS  OF  PROGRESS 

The  examination  should  determine  how  much 
the  student  has  progressed 

THE  time  is  coming,  if  it  is  not  already  here, 
when  the  public  will  cry  out  against  the  nervous 
fear  and  sleepless  nights  with  which  their  children 
approach  the  semi-annual  torture  of  our  inquisi- 
torial examinations.  That  reasonable  examina- 
tions are  essential  and  beneficial  is  hardly  open 
to  question.  That  a  student  should  be  expected 
correctly  to  answer  a  fair  percentage  of  reason- 
able questions  on  work  which  has  been  properly 
taught  is  not  a  cause  of  complaint  from  anyone. 
But  that  children  should  be  frightened  into  a 
state  of  nervous  terror  by  the  bugaboo  of  an  im- 
pending examination,  and  then  be  forced  to  at- 
tempt a  series  of  conundrums  propounded  by  a 
teacher  who  takes  pride  in  maintaining  a  high 
percentage  of  failures,  is  indefensible.  An  exam- 
ination should  not  be  conducted  with  the  primary 
object  of  making  it  a  thing  to  be  feared.  How- 
ever desirable  such  a  questionable  asset  may  seem 
64 


EXAMINATIONS  AS  TESTS 

to  certain  college  professors,  it  is  a  serious  fault 
in  a  high  school  teacher  to  have  any  considerable 
number  of  normal  children  fail.  The  ambition  of 
the  good  instructor  is  to  give  an  examination 
which  shall  at  once  be  thorough,  reasonable,  and 
intelligently  directed  toward  finding  what  the 
student  has  really  learned.  His  purpose  is  to 
test  accurately  the  various  abilities  which  he  has 
endeavored  to  encourage  in  the  student  during 
his  course.  He  wishes  to  ascertain  how  much 
the  student  has  really  progressed. 

Specific  suggestions  on  formulating  questions 

In  order  to  do  this  the  examination  must  be  on 
the  really  material  considerations  of  the  history. 
Questions  on  unimportant  details  should  be 
omitted.  The  student  should  not  be  expected  to 
burden  his  memory  with  the  limitless  mass  of 
petty  isolated  facts  contained  in  the  average 
history  text.  The  questions  should  be  on  consid- 
erations that  have  been  carefully  discussed,  and 
not  on  facts  that  have  received  but  cursory 
attention. 

The  examination  should  not  require  too  much 
time  for  writing.  The  several  hours'  continuous 
nervous  tension  sometimes  exacted  by  too  am- 
bitious teachers  does  the  average  child  more 

65 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY 

harm  than  the  examination  can  possibly  do  him 
good. 

The  examination  should  consist  of  questions 
that  will  jointly  or  severally 


powers  of  description,  .generalization,  and^analy- 

SJS.    They   Should  ^fl.St   hig   knr>wlpHg<»    nf   the.^^ 

quence  of  events,  his  ability  to  use  a  library  oj 
a  map,  his  knowledge  of  tllP  various  phaspc  anH 

the  yarinny  ppHnrjs  of  thft  history  studied.  In 
every  examination  there  should  be  at  least  one 
question  dealing  with  thfl  time  and  th?  oH^r  of 
events,  one  each  on  the  gpngraptiicaJ,  political. 
^nd  social  history,  one  that  isanaly±icaLj3ne  that 
req"irfts  ^^PTQ^JZ^IIQP,  one  that  will  test  his 
knowledge  of  the  library^,  and  one  that  will  ,te§ 
his  powers  of  description.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
limit  the  questions  to  the  customary  number  of 
ten.  It  is  frequently  advisable  to  give  a  class 
some  degree  of  choice  in  the  selection  of  their 
questions  by  requiring  any  ten  out  of  a  larger 
number  asked.  Certainly  such  a  plan  gives  the 
student  a  more  favorable  opportunity  to  demon- 
strate his  ability  without  in  the  least  diminishing 
the  value  of  the  examination. 

Examination  questions,  like  all  other  questions, 
should  be  definite,  clean-cut,  and  reasonable.  If 
possible,  each  student  should  be  supplied  with 
66 


EXAMINATIONS  AS  TESTS 

a  copy,  instead  of  having  the  set  written  on  the 
board.  They  should  cover  only  those  portions  of 
the  subject  that  have  been  properly  taught.  The 
teacher  should  not  expect  the  boy  who  has  kept 
no  useful  notes,  whose  library  work  has  been 
haphazard,  and  whose  methods  of  study  have  not 
been  supervised,  to  perform  at  examination  time 
the  miracle  of  accurately  remembering  what  he 
has  never  been  properly  taught. 


OUTLINE 


I.  SOME   PRELIMINARY  CONSIDERATIONS 

1.  Assumptions  as  to  the  teacher  of  history      ...       I 

2.  Actual  conditions  confronted  by  the  teacher    .    .      2 


II.  HOW  TO  BEGIN  THE  COURSE 

1.  What  should  be  done  on  the  day  of  enrollment    .      4 

2.  What  should  be  done  at  the  first  meeting  of  the 

class 5 

3.  Necessity  for  definite  instruction  in  methods  of 

preparing  a  lesson 6 

4.  The  question  of  note-taking 10 

5.  Instruction  in  the  use  of  the  library  and  indexes  .     13 

III.  THE  ASSIGNMENT  OF  THE  LESSON 

1.  Careful  assignment  will  reveal  to  the  student  the 

relation  of  geography  and  history 18 

2.  His  power  of  analysis  and  criticism  will  be  stimu- 

lated       19 

3.  The  conditions  in  other  countries  will  add  to  his 

comprehension  of  the  facts  in  the  lesson  ...     22 

4.  His  disposition  to  study  intensively  will  be  en- 

couraged    23 

69 


OUTLINE 

5.  His  acquaintance  with  the  great  men  and  women 

of  history  will  be  vitalized 25 

6.  He  will  correlate  the  past  and  the  present   ...    28 

7.  He  will  be  required  to  memorize  a  limited  amount 

of  matter  verbatim 29 

8.  Methods  of  preparing  questions  assigned  in  ad- 

vance  32 

IV.  THE  METHOD  OF  THE  RECITATION 

1.  Assumptions  as  to  the  recitation  room    ....  34 

2.  What  the  teacher  should  aim  to  accomplish     .    .  34 

3.  Work  at  the  blackboard 35 

4.  Special  reports 36 

5.  Fundamental  principles  of  good  questioning    .    .  37 

6.  Some  additional  suggestions  for  teachers  of  his- 

tory  38 

V.  VARIOUS  MODES  OF  REVIEW 

1.  The  place  of  drill  in  the  history  recitation    ...    45 

2.  Good  reviews  will  develop  a  knowledge  of  the  se- 

quence of  events 45 

3.  They  will  give  a  view  of  the  whole  subject   ...     47 

4.  They 'will  insure  a  better  acquaintance  with  great 

men  and  women 52 

5.  They  will  be  economical  of  time      ......  53 

6.  They  will  secure  fluency 58 

7.  What  the  student  may  do  with  "  problems  "  in  his- 

tory  59 

70 


OUTLINE 


VI.  THE  USE  OF  WRITTEN  REPORTS 

I.  The  purpose  of  theme  work  should  change  as  the 

course  continues ,62 


VII.  EXAMINATIONS  AS  TESTS  OF  PROGRESS 

1.  The  examination  should  determine  how  much  the 

student  has  progressed 64 

2.  Specific  suggestions  on  formulating  questions  .    .    65 


JUU* 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


8UB3ECTTO 

EDUC 

AUG  2  6  1964 
JUN  1  7  1967 

FINE  IF  NOT  REOIRf 

VTION  LIBRAf 

ED  TO 

?Y 

**  ' 

,*  •*' 

Form  L9-116m-8,'62(D1237s8)444 


UCLA-ED/PSYCH  Library 

D  16.2  H25 


EDUC  L  005  603  945  6 

L1BR. .. 


D 
16.2 

H25 


iiliiii 

A    000  945  902    5 


